by S. H. Jucha
“Having located a probe in every system that we’ve searched has scared the Leaders out of their lethargy on the question of adopting offensive ships. They aren’t sure where it might lead, and they’ve even discussed hiring the New Terrans or Harakens or both governments to protect the Confederation.”
“We’re too small, even if we combined forces to defend your worlds,” Maria noted. “We could sit for generations in our ships waiting for a sphere to appear, while you expanded the reach of the Confederation. That’s not a feasible idea.”
“Excuse me,” Alex said, holding up a finger.
Those at the table watched Alex, Tatia, and the SADEs quiet.
“They’ve located our system’s probe,” Renée said into the silence.
While the Omnian guests waited with Renée, Gino said, “Maria and Terese, we had considered sending ships to your systems to assist you locating your probes, but it was decided that would be politically insensitive.”
“Smart decision, Gino,” Maria commented.
“Agreed,” Terese added. “The subject of a Nua’ll probe monitoring the system will be disquieting in and of itself. A Confederation ship arriving to announce the message would only make it worse for our leadership.”
Silence once more enveloped the table, while individuals wondered at the communication taking place with Alex.
Z replied.
Julien linked to the Trident’s controller and relayed the display to Alex, Tatia, and the other SADEs at the table.
Alex’s expletives were heard across the link.
The SADEs quickly calculated a dangerous energy radius based on the size of the sphere and the potential to carry a nuclear drive or some other highly volatile energy source.
“Our probe has been hit by some space dust,” Alex said, returning to the table. “It appears to be inoperable, but we’re taking all precautions, while we collect and investigate it.”
Renée, Maria, and Terese looked at the stricken faces of Gino and Katrina and either smiled or chuckled.
“You didn’t expect him to destroy it outright?” Renée asked, surprised at the Méridiens’ reactions.
“Will you bring the probe here, Alex?” Katrina asked.
“Sure. Mickey has his engineering labs on board the Freedom, best place to examine it,” Alex replied with a deadpan expression.
“Alex,” Terese admonished, narrowing one eye at him.
“Apologies, Sers, I was joking. We’ll collect the probe remotely and examine it at a distant mining site,” Alex replied. “You were saying about the Council’s new attitude toward armed ships, Gino.”
“I always thought, given enough time, that someday I would become as agile-minded as you, Alex. Now, I think I won’t live that long,” Gino replied, shaking his head. “Yes, I want the Haraken deal to present to the Council.”
“That’s only half the challenge, Gino,” Maria said, leaning on the table with her forearms. “Once you have the ships, you need crew, and, most important, you need well-trained senior officers, captains, commodores, and admirals, who have the knowledge and expertise to sail and coordinate your ships in a fight.”
Gino looked at Alex for guidance.
“If I were in your boots, Gino, I’d make good use of what’s at hand. There’s an extensive naval training base at Haraken, where individuals are trained to pilot and service travelers and sting ships. Both are examples of the technology employed in Tridents. Train your people there.”
“We can offer you the expertise of our senior commanders to teach your best naval personnel how to operate squadrons in combat situations,” Terese said.
“And, one more critical point, Gino, never stop the training and testing of your squadrons for readiness,” Alex added, staring hard into the Leader’s eyes. “You’ll probably not have advance warning of a sphere entering one of your systems, and the odds are against you having stationed a squadron there. That means you’ll arrive too late to save the colony that resides there. But if your squadron attacks a sphere, carrying bullet ships, without proper readiness, you can say goodbye to your warships and their crews.”
-11-
Nua’ll Device
The Omnians’ guests, Gino, Katrina, Terese, Tomas, and Maria, continued negotiations, while their hosts took on the task of capturing the Celus probe. None of the guests were in a hurry to complete the contractual agreements. They were determined to wait and see what the Omnians discovered during their investigation.
Mickey prided himself on his hands-on engineering approach, but manipulating the capture and investigation of a probe at a distance of 10 million kilometers needed thinking far outside his normal box. It required Mickey to broadcast an appeal for ideas.
That was easy, Mickey thought, smiling at the collection of individuals Alex had amassed, who came with a plethora of experience, skills, and, oh, yes, toys!
The mechanics of capture, transport, and dissection weren’t the only issues requiring resolution. Mickey also needed a means of collecting the minute observations that Alex required, which meant data collection.
Miriam sent.
Glenn chose to co-opt the Vivian to use as the sphere’s collection and transport vehicle. The enormous bays of the city-ship accommodated the scout ship for its augmentation, although it did require an empty bay.
Mickey’s engineering team took Glenn’s concept and turned it into reality. A small trap box was built and attached to the scout ship’s hatch with programmable extension rods to reduce interference in the shell’s collection capability.
When all was ready, the Vivian and OS Prosecutor, captained by Darius Gaumata, left orbit and headed for the outer rim of Celus. Killian would control the Vivian remotely from the bridge of the Trident warship. The SADEs had estimated that 10 million kilometers should be a safe distance, but it was unknown what sort of alien technology and power lurked inside the device.
When the Prosecutor came to a stationary position, the controller identified the distance to the probe at 16.43 million kilometers, and Killian glanced at Darius.
“Insurance,” Darius replied, which Killian translated as that was as near to the probe as the captain was going to get.
The scout ship’s telemetry was streamed to the warship’s controller, which Killian monitored. The SADE eased the Vivian beside the probe. Glenn’s design required Mickey’s team to mount four vid cams at the corners of the box, which allowed Killian to center the probe in the box’s opening.
The grav-capable scout ship enabled Killian to delicately maneuver the vessel. Mickey had wondered if a tethering process might have been the better way to go, but the SADEs had vetoed that idea, saying that the beam’s energy might disturb the probe enough to have it execute a fail-safe routine, even though it was incapable of transmitting.
Glenn had chosen the trap approach based on Killian’s assurance that he could easily slide the sphere into the box. And that was what Killian did. The sphere entered the enclosure without touching a side or the far end of the box. Killian signaled the twin doors of the box to close, trapping the sphere, and the walls of the nanites-coated box closed on the sphere, anchoring it in place.
“Well done, Killian,” Darius remarked. His warship’s controller was transmitting everything — telemetry data, vid cam views, comms, and bridge conversation — to the Freedom, where the action was being closely monitored.
Killian slaved the scout ship’s controller to that of the Prosecutor’s, allowing Darius to carefully back the warship away, towing the scout ship behind it, and maintaining a safe distance.
It took two anxious days before the Trident was positioned near a moon, which held a recently abandoned mining site. Killian released the controller link between the two vessels and guided the scout ship to an area that had been cleared and flattened for the upcoming operation. Once the Vivian was on the surface, the hatch was triggered and slowly lowered. The extension rods that supported the box were capable of cantilevering. This allowed the box to be kept level and prevent the probe from rotating.
The box gently touched the moon’s surface. The rods released it, and the box was detached from the scout ship’s hatch.
The SADEs aboard the warship began the next stage of the operation. Miriam, Killian, Bethley, and Trium were each linked to separate shadows via the scout ship’s controller.
The small devices, called shadows, that Z had first created to penetrate an Earther warship, which had masqueraded as an explorer, had a limited comm range. This meant the scout ship must remain on the moon’s surface during the investigation of the probe to facilitate communication. This aspect of the operation, exposing the scout ship to possible obliteration, didn’t settle well with the Vivian’s crew, but they kept their thoughts to themselves.
Killian activated the doors of the box. Then the SADEs initiated control of the four spider-like shadows. The devices crawled from the vessel, across the hatch, and dropped to the moon’s surface. Ever so carefully, the small but powerful creations hauled the probe from the box. The vid cams mounted on the box were repositioned to maintain a visual for the individuals monitoring the proceedings.
The first task was a minute examination of the probe’s surface, which every shadow was capable of transmitting.
Mickey was hosting a small gathering in his engineering bay, where everyone was focused on an incredibly large holo-vid display.
“Looks like a miniature sphere,” Tatia commented.
“Typical of any intelligent species,” Mickey replied. “If a design works, why not keep using it until something better comes along?”
“Okay, Mickey, does that mean we can grasp it by the top and bottom, twist the two halves, and get it to open up like the sphere does to disgorge its bullet ships?” Ellie asked.
“Not a bad idea,” Mickey quipped, giving Ellie a quick grin, before his face took on a flat expression, and he added, “But I don’t suggest it.”
Suddenly, more than one Omnian was berating themselves for not having asked the same question but much earlier.
Theodore pulled the detailed vids recorded from the observing vessels and sent the imagery to Miriam, who studied the probes’ demolishment.
There were audible sighs of relief from the humans, who shared the comm link. Having missed the opportunity to delve deeper into the Méridiens’ method of removing the probes, it appeared that there had been nothing more to glean.
Belatedly, it occurred to Alex that if a warning about a probe’s demolishment had been needed, Theodore would have sounded the alarm, which made him wonder why Miriam was questioning Gino and Theodore so closely.
